Human Rights: Towards the Consolidation of Public Policies and the Entrenchment of a Human Rights Culture

Since its reorganization in 2001 in accordance with the Paris Principles, the Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH) has fulfilled its missions as a national institution for the promotion and protection of human rights, as defined in Dahir (Royal decree) No. 1-00-350 of 10 April 2001. As a first step in defining its strategy of action, the CCDH considered it was important before starting work on current issues regarding human rights to undertake a review on the activities carried out by different players and explore the gross violations perpetrated in the past to make the necessary recommendations to build the future and avoid repetition of such violations. Thus, one of the first projects was a truth commission, which is the Equity and Reconciliation Commission. It was set up after royal assent to the CCDH recommendation made in January 2004. The Commission worked for almost two years on the truth, reparation and especially the recommendations for non-repetition.

The CCDH has also focused on gaining deeper insight into the question of promoting and protecting human rights in order to implement a strategy of action that takes into account the dimension of defining public policies and that of integrating the values of human rights into the Moroccan culture.

Concerning the definition of public policies, the CCDH launched in April the process of drawing up the National Action Plan in Human Rights and Democracy (PANDDH).

The PANDDH, first plan of its kind in North Africa and Middle East, is a response to the need for Morocco to have a coherent and everlasting framework to register and coordinate all the activities aiming at the dissemination, promotion, protection and respect of human rights in Morocco.

The PANDDH, whose development process is participatory, allowing a strong participation of government, national institutions, research institutions, and different components of civil society, emanates from the recommendation of the World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993.

The official launch of the PANDDH took place in the presence of the Prime Minister in April 2008 during a two-day national symposium which saw the participation of representatives of the government and civil society to open a national debate. So far, four regional consultation meetings were held in Marrakech, Agadir, Meknes and Tangier.

The PANDDH is particularly a process of dialogue and consultation between these different stakeholders whose purpose is to implement a national strategy that places the promotion and protection of human rights at the heart of public policies.

At the level of the human rights culture: the Citizen Platform for Promoting the Human Rights Culture (Platform) is the result of combined efforts of several stakeholders following the momentum initiated by the CCDH. For nearly eight months, and in a proactive manner, the process of drawing up the Platform has been open to a large number of governmental players, associations and experts through several consultations in this regard.

The Platform is a tool and a framework to coordinate the activities and pool the efforts towards the achievement, accumulation and sustainable social mobilization, which is capable of promoting a human rights culture and making these rights a practice rooted in society.

The Platform aims particularly to strengthen various initiatives for promoting the human rights culture through partnership.

The CCDH officially launched the Platform in February 2007, at a national meeting in the presence of the Prime Minister and representatives of human rights associations. The Platform identified three major areas of activity: education, training and awareness-raising. Discussions are now underway on the establishment of a steering committee which will ensure monitoring the implementation of its provisions.

Based on the principles of universality and interdependence of human rights, these two major projects are the result of consultations, which include stakeholders from the executive body, through the direct involvement of the Prime Minister in both projects, and from civil society by integrating a large number of NGOs and other players. Thus, in order to allow for socialization and appropriation of the human rights project by the whole society, and in order to contribute, as specified in its statute, to the process of democracy-building, the CCDH gives priority to three key words in these actions: convergence, debate and serenity.